The Logic and Metaphysics Workshop will meet on September 12th from 4:15-6:15 (NY time) via Zoom for a talk by Yasuo Deguchi (Kyoto).
Title: Logic of Presence
Abstract: This talk will propose a new modality within the framework of possible worlds, i.e., presence or present world. Presence is defined in terms of mutual or two-ways intentionality: An object X is present to an intentional agent A in the actual world iff A has active and passive intentionalities toward X, where active intentionality means that A has intentionality to X (e.g., A loves X), and passive intentionality means that A has self-awareness/consciousness as being an object of X’s intentionality (e.g., X loves A). Some actual agents such as your partner is actual and present entity for you, while other actual objects such as minute physical events in an unknown faraway galaxy are actual but not present entities for you. Some counterfactual agents such as those in a digital virtual reality can be counterfactual but present agents for you, while some other counterfactual entities are simply counterfactual and non-present for you. This talk claims that this present approach to virtual reality is better than Chalmers’ virtual realism and Ryan’s recentering approach. This talk also outlines the logic of presence that is an extension of Priest-Berto’s logic of intentionality, being based on possible worlds semantics.
